Briefly Noted | Chapter 16

The Land Between the Lakes

Ronald A. Foresta
University of Tennessee Press
308 pages
$67

“From its promising launch to its ignominious relegation, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s controversial LBL recreation project attracted national and international attention. In Ron Foresta’s capable hands, readers are treated to so much more than a simple chronicle of an idea gone awry, Indeed, he shows us what can happen when we fail to adapt our thinking to changing circumstances. More important, he reminds us how terribly difficult it is to predict—let alone plan for—the future.”

–Geoffrey L. Buckley, author of Extracting Appalachia: Images of the Consolidation Coal Company, 1910–1945

The Last Billion Years: A Geologic History of Tennessee

Don W. Byerly
University of Tennessee Press
256 pages
$29.95

This book is the only comprehensive geologic history available on the market for Tennessee. … There are no other books like this that are close to being up to date.”

–Michael A. Gibson, University of Tennessee, Martin

Once We Were

Kat Zhang
352 pages
$17.99

“Zhang’s concept is original and provocative; the deep bond between Eva and Addie (the shifts between I, we, and she in Eva’s narration are especially haunting) and the mystery about why their society is so desperate to ‘fix’ hybrids are riveting.”

–Publishers Weekly

Thorazine Beach

Bradley Harris
Anvil Press
120 pages
$16

“Jack Minyard is a private eye down on his luck. He’s badly overweight and on the wrong side of sixty. He’s lost his marriage, and maybe a little of his mind, too. After narrowly escaping charges in a statewide fraud and money laundering scandal, Jack has been working private contracts and counting on the kindness of strangers (not to mention a pile of prescription drugs) to get by. In a last-ditch play to resurrect his career, Jack takes on a case that puts him on the wrong side of the tracks and in the midst of some of the roughest trade going.”

–from the publisher

Fiddlehead

Cherie Priest
Tor Books
368 pages
$14.99

“Young ex-slave Gideon Bardsley is a brilliant inventor, but the job is less glamorous than one might think, especially since the assassination attempts started. Worse yet, they’re trying to destroy his greatest achievement: a calculating engine called Fiddlehead, which provides undeniable proof of something awful enough to destroy the world. Both man and machine are at risk from forces conspiring to keep the Civil War going and the money flowing.”

–from the publisher

The Greatest Speech, Ever

James L. Cotton
History Publishing Company LLC
475 pages
$18.95

“Cotton’s meticulously researched, and lovingly crafted story of Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, joins the many that examines the speech, and its creator. The author interprets a remarkable and complex period in American history and does so with knowledge that the reader’s journey will be one of discovery and enlightenment.”

–Steven Wilson, Author, President Lincoln s Spy and President Lincoln s Secret